Dear Friends,
It was very unfortunate for WWS as both physical programmes on Friday were postponed due to heavy rain- 24 pax Kayak Cleanup for DocuSign and 24 pax Boat Cleanup for BOC. Thus, last week we only did one Virtual Talk sponsored by SPH for 150 students from National Cadet Corps (NCC) Sea. Calvin, a regular volunteer supporter, worked hard and helped to clean our boats on his CSR Volunteer Day, despite the programmes being cancelled due to rain.
Weekday duty was performed at the Punggol office by 5 members on Wednesday morning. One member stayed back to wash the boats and the other 4 members went out for a boat patrol (see photos). The park was still quiet but they managed to collect about 3 kg of litter, which included 2 masks, 1 glass wine bottle, 2 plastic water bottles and 1 can (see photos). At the Jurong office, there were two sessions of patrol duty on Thursday. A total of 4 members turned up at the Jurong office, 1 did maintenance and 3 did bike patrol in the morning and afternoon (see photos). The morning session collected 1 kg of litter and 2 kg in the afternoon session. They collected 8 plastic bottles, 3 masks, 5 cans and many food wrappers (see photos).
On Saturday morning, a total of 20 members turned up at Kallang including admin. There were 2 groups of boat patrol in groups of 4 and 5 respectively, 2 members did pedal boat, 4 members did bike patrol and 3 members helped on gardening (see photos). All patrol groups were reported on different timings. Due to NDP, boat and bike patrol groups did not go into the Singapore River side, instead they went to Kallang and Geylang River. Due to the heavy rain on Friday, lots of litter was found floating in the water, especially at Pelton Canal, Kallang Basin, in front of Tanjong Rhu Promenade and in the corner near Kallang Wave (see photos). At Kallang River, many plastic bottles and cans were found under the viewing deck near BLK 83 (see photos). The two boat patrol groups together picked up 28kg of litter from water, including 7 masks, 13 cans, 12 plastic bottles and lots of plastic food wrappers. The pedal boat collected 10kg of litter mainly from the Stadium area. Remarkably, they found about 10 empty cough syrup bottles, suspecting drug abuse. On the other hand, the bike patrol group went to Kallang River and Pelton Canal and found mainly Hungry Ghost paper on the sidewalk. Additionally, the gardening group harvested lemongrass from our garden and made lemongrass tea.
At the same time, 4 members did a patrol at Pang Sua Pond also (see photos). The water in the pond was muddy with lots of trash and debris, likely due to heavy rain in the past few days. Lots of litter was found along Bukit Panjang Road and on the bridge near BLK 405 (see photos). The overhead bridge near lamppost D5 was suspected to have illegal fishing activity, as lots of litter and fishing line with hook was found near it (see photos).
The Punggol Waterway Park was relatively busy on Saturday afternoon. Three members of the Punggol team did a bike patrol in the park (see photo). They spotted one monkey searching for food from the rubbish bin, below Punggol Way next to BLK 308C (see photos). A lot of litter was found below Kelong Bridge and the entrance of the bridge towards the Punggol Walking Trials (see photos). There were lots of shared bikes parked at non-designated areas in the Punggol Waterway Park, one was near Station 27 (see photos). The patrol group picked up about 20kg of litter in total, more than half from the Kelong Bridge, including 10 masks, 110 cans, 10 plastic bottles and 3 glass bottles (see photos).
Our physical orientation (after virtual session earlier this month)for new members resumed last Sunday at Kallang. Total of 12 new members were separated into 4 groups. Although the orientation groups focus more on briefing while on patrol, they still picked up 11 kg of litter in total. Litter was found mostly at a few hotspots: Duck Tour launching area, around Nicoll Highway MRT Station, water near MBS, water in front of Tanjong Rhu. They even saw one bottom part of the dustbin floating in Geylang River (see photos). They asked the cleaning boat to retrieve it. What’s more, one fishing hook with a fragment of fishing line stuck at the propeller of our boat WWS#7 (see photo).
Unfortunately, patrol at Jurong Lake was cancelled due to rain. Six members that came down did housekeeping and worked on pontoons instead.
